Microelectronic manufacturing techniques have led to the miniaturization of numerous devices. Mobile phones, personal digital assistant devices, and digital cameras are very common examples of the miniaturization trend.
One device that has not seen the advantage of microelectronic manufacturing techniques is the printer. Commercially available printers are large compared to many of the devices they could support. For instance, it is impractical to carry a color printer for the purpose of instantly printing photographs taken with known compact digital cameras.
A compact printhead has been described in co-pending U.S. patent applications filed simultaneously to the present application and hereby incorporated by cross reference:
USSNTitle7,018,016Fluidic seal for an ink jet nozzle assembly6,428,133Ink jet printhead having a moving nozzle with anexternally arranged actuator6,526,658Method of manufacture of an ink jet printhead havinga moving nozzle with an externally arranged actuator6,328,417Ink jet printhead nozzle array6,390,591Nozzle guard for an ink jet printhead
Although digital cameras are known, they require connection to a personal computer before a hardcopy image can be obtained. Generally, it is necessary to upload images from the camera to the personal computer and then print the images on a desktop printer using a proprietary software package that makes the necessary translation between the image format taken by the camera and the format required by the printer. A camera that is able to link directly to a compact printer would be more desirable.